1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to collecting and presenting news, and more particularly, it relates to providing a news reader which selects the optimal article for presentation to the user and which facilitates a sense of community among users.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of different websites are available for presenting news articles to users over the Internet (e.g., websites provided by Associated Press™ CNN™, Reuters™ or Yahoo! News™). As known in the art, users can access these websites by connecting to the Internet and utilizing a web browser. When a user accesses the websites, the user may be presented with a variety of different news articles.
It is often the case that multiple articles are provided which describe a single topic or event. For example, when an event first occurs, a single news source (e.g., the Associated Press™) may initially break the story by publishing a small snippet (e.g., two or three sentences) that describes the event. Within a short while after the original snippet was published, a more detailed version of the story (e.g., a few paragraphs) may be published describing the event. Complete articles may be provided with full descriptions of the event over the course of the next few days, weeks or even months after the initial occurrence of an event.
As each article is published, the article tends to be copied by multiple news providers. For example, when Reuters™ publishes an article covering a topic or event, the article may be copied by secondary news providers (e.g., Yahoo! News™) that have entered into contracts or agreements with Reuters™ to allow for the reproduction and dissemination of the article. When the article is copied by the secondary news provider, the secondary news provider may insert advertisements into the article, or may supplement the article with additional facts or multimedia items (e.g., images or video).
The services offered by conventional news providers are inadequate for several reasons. When there are multiple articles covering a topic, conventional news providers do not provide an efficient mechanism for automatically identifying and selecting the best articles to be displayed to the user. As explained above, more detailed articles may be published over time after an event initially occurs. Conventional news providers do not have a mechanism that can analyze all of the articles covering a particular topic and select the best article to be displayed. In addition, the news providers often fail to account for the fact that many of the articles covering the topic are mere copies of other articles that have already been published.
Other deficiencies associated with the conventional news providers relate to the fact that conventional news providers fail to facilitate a social aspect or sense of community among users who access the website. These conventional news providers have no means of integrating with social networks. Furthermore, while certain news providers may permit users to post comments on articles or otherwise interact with the news provider's website, there is no mechanism to share the user's interactions with others (e.g., the user's friends, colleagues, co-workers, etc.).